You
can animate most fur attributes to achieve special effects. For
example, you can animate fur length so that fur appears to grow,
or you can animate fur inclination so that a character’s fur stands
on end.
Density is
one fur attribute that cannot be animated. However, animating Baldness will
give the same effect as animating Density.
Animate fur attributes
by keying the changes you make to the attributes. The following
procedure describes just one way of keyframing. For other methods,
refer to
Animation in Maya in
the Animation guide.
To key fur attributes
- Attach a fur description to the surface.
For details, see
Create fur.
- Turn on Auto Key by
clicking at the
bottom-right corner of the Maya main window and move to the first
frame. For other methods, refer to
Animation in Maya in
the Animation guide.
- Do one of the following:
- Select the fur feedback and in the INPUTS section
of the Channel Box, select the appropriate
fur description.
- Select
Fur > Edit Fur Description > FurDescriptionName to
open the Attribute Editor.
- Select the attribute you want to animate,
right-click it and select one of the following:
- If you are in the Channel
Box, select Key Selected.
- If you are in the Attribute
Editor, select Set Key.
- Move to another frame and edit the fur
description attributes. For details, see
Change fur attributes.
- Repeat step 6 as required.
- Click the Play Forward button
to check that the attributes are behaving the way you want them
to.
- Render the animation. See
Render an animation with fur.
Make fur grow
The following example illustrates how you can animate
fur attributes by keyframing them. In this example, length is animated
to produce the effect of grass growing. (Notice that Maya Fur can
also be used for non-fur effects, like grass or wheat.)
To play the animation,
click the link below.
growAnim.mov
To animate grass growing
- Create a plane and add lights to the
scene.
- Add a texture to the plane to make it
look like earth.
- Attach a fur description to the surface
and name it. For details, see
Create fur.
- Set the fur attributes in the Attribute
Editor (
Fur > Edit Fur Description > FurDescriptionName).
- Map a texture to the fur base and tip
color to make it look more realistic. Try green marble for grass.
For details, see
Map fur attribute values.
- Add Scraggle.
Try a value of 0.3.
- Map a texture or file to the Baldness attribute.
In this example, the following file texture was used:
- Bake the Baldness attribute.
The surface remains bald
(no grass will grow) where the map is black (value of 0). For details,
see
Map fur attribute values.
- Turn on Auto Key by
clicking at the
bottom-right corner of the Maya main window and move to the first
frame.
- Set the fur Length to
0.
- In the Attribute Editor,
right-click the Length field and select Set Key.
- Move to the last frame and make the fur
longer. Try a Length of 4.
- Click the Play Forward button
to check that the attributes are behaving the way you want them
to.
- Render the animation. For details, see
Render an animation with fur.
Make fur spread using animated
file textures
The following example illustrates how you can animate
fur attributes by mapping animated file textures to them. In this
example, baldness is animated to produce the effect of fur sprouting
and spreading across a character, like a werewolf.
To play the animation,
click the link below.
spreadFur.mov
To paint a series of textures
- Switch to the Paint Effects panel
and select Paint > Paint Canvas.
- Change the size of the canvas to 256
x 256.
- Select Canvas > Set Size.
- Set both the X Size and Y Size to
256 and click Set Size, and then click Close.
- Set the canvas color to black if you
want the value of the mapped attribute to be 0, or to white so the
value is 1.
- Either leave the canvas black for the
first file texture or paint a little bit. Then save the first texture
in the sequence:
- Select Canvas > Save As.
- Go to the textures directory.
- Type a filename with a frame number,
such as, spreadFur.1.iff, and click Save.
- Paint the canvas a little more and then
save the next texture in the sequence.
- Repeat step 5 until you’ve finished creating
all the sequences for the animated file texture.
To animate fur spreading across a character
like a werewolf
- Create a plane and add lights to the
scene.
- Add a texture to the plane to make it
look like skin.
- Attach a fur description to the surface
and name it. For details, see
Create fur.
- Apply the Llama fur
preset to the Fur Description (
Fur > Edit Fur Description > FurDescriptionName).
- Click the Presets button
in the Fur Description, select Sheep and
then select replace.
- Map an animated file texture to the Baldness attribute:
- Right-click Baldness and select Create
New Texture. For details, see
Apply animated file textures to objects.
- Select File from
the Create Render Node window.
- Make sure you are at frame 1.
- In the file node, click the folder button
to browse for the following animated file texture in the textures directory, spreadFur.1.iff, then click Open.
(This is the first texture file in the sequence.)
- Turn on Use Image Sequence.
This automatically keys each frame with the numbered texture file
on a 1 to 1 basis.
- Bake the Baldness attribute.
- In the Fur Description select Baldness from
the Bake Attribute drop-down list
and click Bake.
The surface remains bald
where the map is black (value of 0) and grows where the surface
becomes white (value of 1). For details on painting a sequence of
textures, see
To paint a series of textures.
- Click the Play Forward button
to check that the attributes are behaving the way you want them
to.
- Render the animation. For details, see
Render an animation with fur.